


Snowed in for the Night

by Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer



Category: Snowbarry - Fandom, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow - Freeform, Christmas Fluff, F/M, One Shot, SnowBarry - Freeform, SnowBarry ff, prompt, the flash au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 02:33:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13626735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer/pseuds/Savy_tries_to_be_a_writer
Summary: Exams are over, and Barry Allen is ready to fly back to Central City vom Vancouver International Airport, in time for the Christmas Holidays. But a snowstorm cancels both his and Caitlin's flights, so how do they pass the time until they can catch another flight to their respective homes?





	Snowed in for the Night

**Author's Note:**

> For Marjorie :)
> 
> It's been a while since I've written anything besides research articles, so don't expect the world! That said, I don't hate it ;)

It was the 23rd of December, and Vancouver International Airport was shut down due to the snowstorm that raged. Barry Allen, intent on returning home to Central City, felt the rush of 10 exams being placed in front of him at once. His sports bag, that could still technically count as a carry-on if the flight attendants felt even a little bit of the holiday cheer in them, thudded loudly as it hit the ground. If he had any more energy left in his body to regulate and therefore express his emotions, he probably would have cursed out loud.

But the past four weeks had been too much. Hell, the past four _months_ had been a bit much. He usually had two classes a day, a mandatory 4-hour lab study to include into his schedule, papers that were due, group assignments, and on top of that the job at the coffee shop, 4 shifts a week. Thank goodness for that though, because it meant a free coffee every two hours he was on the job, and if there weren’t any customers and he was working with Linda, the assistant manager, he could catch up on some reading assignments for his classes.

It’s been stressful, to say the least. And now he maybe wouldn’t even make it home to Central City in time for Christmas Eve. _Great_.

He stared at the departure board for another moment before giving up, sighing deeply and closing his eyes. His fingers found their way to his temples, brows, nose bridge, and began to massage the tightly pulled flesh. The snowstorm wasn’t going to let up within the next 12 hours, so the flights were delayed for at least half a day. The airline would call him when he could catch the next flight out, and all hope left Barry for a moment. It was a six hour drive to Central City by car, but Barry had no car and knew no one with a car going that direction. And in this storm, who would even want to? It would be a great risk, and Barry wasn’t up for risking his life after basically working his entire soul away for four months, just to get home for Christmas Eve.

A gentle touch to his shoulder got him to finally open his eyes again after what felt like a peaceful forever. The clock on the schedule mocked him – it had just been a minute. Funny how even something as simple as closing your eyes and not having anywhere to go can instantly relax you sometimes.

It was Caitlin Snow’s hand. Her long, chocolate brown hair fell in big waves out of her baggy hat, her big brown eyes searched his face attentively. Barry felt a smile creep to his lips.

It didn’t come as a surprise to him that in this _snow_ storm, she’d come out looking like she was completely in her element.

“Your flight out delayed, too?” she asked, returning his smile a tenfold. Barry nodded.

“Are you _flying_ back to Seattle?” He turned his back to the scheduling board to fully face her.

At least he got to see Caitlin before the holidays. Then the snowstorm couldn’t be _that_ bad, right?

Caitlin nodded. “My mom booked the ticket because she thought it was _safer_ and _faster_. I would have been fine with getting the train or seeing if I could catch a ride or something, but it’s her money I guess. And look where it’s gotten her, ha!”

Beneath the layer of frustration, Caitlin felt kind of relieved not to have to return to her mother’s place for another day. It showed when the cocked eyebrow evened out a bit and her other brow joined in a symmetric hint of a smile.

“But you’re not as content with that as I am, are you?” she asked, biting her lower lip.

“I’m sorry about that. It must suck for you. You’ve been working really hard this semester, doing so many things. I can’t imagine how disappointed you must be right now.” The way her head cocked to the side a bit made her eyes appear even larger. Barry could almost see the compassion in the wateriness of her eyes. Caitlin was way too empathic for her own good sometimes, he thought.

But it was part of what he liked about her after all. The way she could care for everyone in her vicinity endeared her to him like no one else had been for a while.

“’s alright” he muffled, his head ducked and his hand massaging the back of his neck, “I’ll get there eventually.”

He looked back up, having found his smile again. “I’ve got a full two weeks off, _completely_ _off_ from work and assignments. It’s going to be amazing even if it’s a day later than I expected it to be.”

Caitlin noticed the sparkle in his eyes return at that. It lit one in hers, too.

“That sounds wonderful.” After looking at each other in silence for a moment, she cleared her throat.

“So what are your plans for now? Back to your dorm?”

Barry bent down to pick up his bag, realizing it was still on the floor.

“Well, yeah, I mean, there’s nothing else for me to do. I don’t really want to spend the night at the airport, and at the dorm I’ve at least got my warm bed and … food.” They had both started moving towards the bus station. Barry’s gaze had started trailing off at the thought of his cup ramen, and inadvertently comparing it to one of Joe’s home cooked meals.

Caitlin picked up on that and took a deep breath. With a slight pink staining her cheeks, she took the chance.

“You can come over to my place if you want? The apartment’s empty, Linda’s already gone to her parents’ yesterday. And there’s a great Asian around the corner. You up for some fried rice and a movie?”

Barry considered for a moment. Caitlin’s place, being off campus, _was_ closer to the airport. Less time in the shitty bus. Plus, probably, _definitely_ way more cosy than his dorm room. The idea of having ramen for dinner again under the blankets of his bed because the radiator wasn’t always working properly, didn’t sound as appealing as Caitlin’s smile looked.

“Definitely,” he said, “thanks!”

The snow had gotten worse during the 15 minutes they were waiting for their food. The man behind the counter had said they were lucky they could come in, because they weren’t doing deliveries anymore in this storm.

“No, it’s not Professor Stein’s fault! Cisco and I just didn’t know what we were doing!” Caitlin was arguing, unlocking the door to her apartment and dropping the keys on the little table next to the door. There was a small pot on it, a tiny red poinsettia blooming on it.

“That looks nice,” Barry said, pointing to it, “Christmassy.”

Caitlin looked up from her small carry-on suitcase and smiled as she moved to take off her coat. “Gift from Linda. She talks about you a lot you know?”

Barry scrunched up half of his face, shrugging clumsily out of his knee-length coat.

“Hm, probably complains about how I mess up her cup display all the time, if I’m not studying or leaving rude customers to her.” He was being overdramatic; Linda and he usually had a good time working together. But then again, Linda could sometimes be a bit dramatic about where she thought the cups should go, or that a customer was rude when they just weren’t as talkative as her.

Caitlin giggled.

“No actually about how fun you are to work with. _When you’re not studying_ that is.” She led the way into the kitchen, grabbing plates and cutlery and putting it on the dining table for them. Barry hadn’t ever been in Caitlin and Linda’s apartment before, but after setting down his food container, he walked around the brunette to grab glasses and fill them with water from the purifier. He found the right cabinet on the second try and felt the warmth of pride swell up in his chest.

After an hour of sitting at the table, eating, laughing, arguing over assignments and professors, Barry glanced at his phone.

Iris had sent him 15 messages about how much it sucked that his flight got delayed, whether there was a replacement something he could take, if he knew anything new about when he was getting home. Two messages from Joe, his adoptive dad, simply stating “man, that sucks” and “tell me when you get in tomorrow, I’ll come pick you up in the squad car”.

No drama, no big deal. Barry liked that about Joe; his calm and matter-of-fact-ness aligned well with Barry’s own frame of mind now, and taught him to keep his temper under control growing up. With a dad in prison, accused – falsely- of murdering his wife, Barry’s mother, his temper _would_ sometimes flare up around bullying kids. But he was far from that nowadays. Barely anything could rile him up anymore. Not even a delayed flight at Christmas.

Caitlin had gotten up and cleared the table. She called out to him, asking him what he wanted to do next. Barry slipped his phone back into the pocket of his jeans.

“I don’t know really. Have you got anything in mind? Any shows you want to catch up on, or movies on your to-do list for the holidays?”

Caitlin grabbed her glass of water and made her way over to the couch. Barry followed her, falling into the opposite corner and nestling one of the throw pillows under his head as he turned towards Caitlin. She was nursing the top rim of her glass, biting her lower lip, gaze fixed on the couch table in front of them.

“I haven’t watched _Superstore_ in a while? Do you know it?” Barry vaguely remembered the suspense after the first season finale about being renewed or not, but he’d not caught up with it since then, he had to admit. Caitlin’s eyes lit up at that.

“Oh you _have_ to watch it! It’s absolutely hilarious. I just cannot believe there are people who act like those customers. It’s surreal!” She put her glass down on the table and grabbed her TV remote, looking for it on the TV’S Hulu app.

Barry couldn’t help but notice all the other apps Caitlin’s TV had; Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime. It wasn’t a secret that Caitlin came from money, and that her mother is a biomedical scientist. Barry’s even had to read a few articles co-authored by her before, but nonetheless he was always humbled when it occurred to him. Caitlin didn’t walk around showing off her financial security, but the very decent two-bedroom apartment in central Vancouver, decorated with new and, though simple yet expensive looking things, the big curved TV that hooked up to the WiFi and all kinds of payment-requiring apps - it all but smacked him in the face with a reminder.

He couldn’t help but realize that while he related to most jokes told on _Superstore_ because he’d _experienced it first-hand_ as a store assistant, Caitlin had probably never _had_ to take an after-school job like that. Maybe she had even been a customer like the ones on the show before. From the very few snippets he’d heard about her mother, Barry was sure Dr Snow had _surely_ been one of those customers at least once in her life.

Caitlin was all too happy to continue where Barry left off, laughing at all the jokes as if she was hearing them for the first time, and getting into character discussions with Barry. After the third episode, she got up to refill their glasses and returned with a bottle of sweet red wine, a fancy assembly of Belgian chocolates, and a gigantic purple blanket.

“You drink red, right?” she asked Barry as she put their glasses on the table, opened the box of chocolates, and threw the folded blanket between the two of them on the couch. When he all but stammered an affirmation, she pushed the gigantic, half-filled wine glass into his hand, thrust the box of chocolates into his lap and started to unfold the blanket. When she asked him if he was a bit cold and he again stammered an affirmation, she draped it over both their bodies.

“Thank goodness the legal drinking age in British Columbia is 19”, Caitlin said with a sigh. She shut her eyes as her lips touched the dark red liquid, fully enjoying its aroma in her nose. Barry couldn’t help himself, he had to laugh.

“My god Cait, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were like 25 and had _done_ things in life, rather than being a 20-year-old med student!”

The brunette’s eyelids flew up and the liquid in her glass stopped moving. Her eyes slowly wandered in Barry’s direction, but she didn’t move her head. The side-eye with her glass still grasped between her lips didn’t help one bit in quieting down Barry’s laughter. He put his glass on the table to keep from spilling it all over the blanket.

He laughed like Caitlin hadn’t heard in a long time though – like the young man/old boy he was when they first met in one of their shared classes. The smile that spread across her face almost made some of the wine trickle down the corners of her mouth. When her shoulders curled forward with a choked laugh and she almost spilled even more alcohol, she set her glass down.

As both of them calmed down a little bit, she turned to face him completely, resting her head on the arm she’d propped up on the back of the couch.

“I’ve missed that laugh,” she said, the twinkle in her eye so bright it almost distracted from her smile.

Barry had to resist the urge to kiss her. _Hard_. His laughter faded and he brushed a hand over the back of his head nervously, barely managing to tear his eyes away from the magnificent young woman in front of him.

“You know I could say the same for you.” He looked up at her through his lashes, his head bent down in an effort to have it sink in between his shoulders. He _had to_ stop looking at her like _that_.

But Caitlin didn’t waver.

“Maybe we’ve both been too stressed and busy to do the things we like. To spend time with the people we like. To find something _new_ we’re crazy about.” Barry looked up at that. Their gazes locked and in that instant, he felt like time stood still.

If he leaned forward now, cupped his hand around her cheek and tasted the wine from her lips, he didn’t think she’d push him away, that she didn’t want that.

If he leaned forward now, held her face in both his hands and told her how he’d found the new thing to be crazy about a while ago in her smile, her chocolate brown eyes and the way she’d pull one side of her mouth into a half-smile whenever she stated something sarcastic and matter-of-factly – would she mind?

If he would tell her now that being snowed in on Christmas Eve-eve and unable to go back home, which was all he’d wanted for the past three months, was the best thing he could have wished for because it meant being with _her_ -

“I’m glad we got snowed in together tonight”, Caitlin almost whispered. She shrugged her shoulders a bit, and her head tilted in a way that made her jaw clench. The side of her mouth crinkled up into that half-smile of hers – and all brakes failed.

Barry leapt forward, his hand cupping the side of Caitlin’s face only just before his lips touched hers. Fireworks exploded in front of his closed eyes, and he could feel her lips responding to his, melting into them, moulding around each other like liquid wax on a fingertip. A hand went up to his bicep and exerted a bit of pressure on his tense muscle, while another lay flat against his chest, fingertips tracing his collarbone. Panic crept up and he pulled back from the kiss as quickly as he initiated it.

“Sorry, I’m sorry – I should have asked if I could kiss you first.”

Caitlin had opened her eyes again slowly, her hands frozen in mid-air where she was just now holding on to Barry. Her lips were still slightly parted and her chin tilted slightly forward from his lips. She cleared her throat.

“That’s okay.” For a moment the two of them just sat there, taking one deep breath after the other, putting their hands back by their sides or into their laps and blinking.

Then Barry cleared his throat, combing his hand over the back of his head again.

“Can I-…May I kiss you?” His face was scrunched up in that constipated expression again, anxiously wondering if he’d just ruined his chances at ever kissing Caitlin Snow again.

He barely got to finish that thought. Caitlin’s hands found the back of his head and neck, and her mouth closed over his.

“ _Please_ ” she managed to say when Barry temporarily released her lips again and she scooted closer to his body.

“I’m glad we got snowed in together tonight, too, _Snow_ ” he would say later that evening.

And he was.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been SO.LONG since I've really written anything, let alone publish anything... I'm still getting back into it, and though it's a bit like riding a bike, I know it's still a bit rough around the edges - which is why I encourage you to tell me what you think!! What didn't work, what did, what would have been better - Tell me!  
> And/or come and cry with me on my tumblr, an-effed-up-mess.tumblr.com !


End file.
